gambleaware machu picchu charity fundraiser

GambleAware, the official charity for this year’s SBC Awards, has announced a trek around ancient Peruvian site Machu Picchu to raise awareness about gambling related harm.

The experience, which will take place from 6-15 October in 2018, will be run by GambleAware’s trekking partner Charity Challenge, an organisation with 16 years experience in delivering treks to thousands of fundraisers.

An independent, UK-based charity, GambleAware is guided by the National Responsible Gambling Strategy. It has the strategic aim of broadening public understanding of gambling-related harm as a public health issue, and helping those that do develop problems get the support and help they need quickly and effectively.

In the 12 months to the end of March 2017, it spent £7.9 million, with 19% going to research and 81% on education and treatment. However, the charity’s CEO Marc Etches has this week written an open letter to the industry to express his concerns over the level of funding that the current voluntary donation based system is able to produce.

Despite an upturn in the 12 months up to 31 March 2017, the figure raised still represented a 20% shortfall of the target set by the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board, while seven months into this year, the industry is an estimated 60% short.

Therefore, volunteers are being encouraged to sign up for the trek around the Incan citadel set high in the Andes Mountains in Peru. Listed as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, Machu Picchu is renowned for its dry-stone walls that fuse huge blocks without the use of mortar, buildings that play on astronomical alignments and panoramic views.